Tag Archives: Bundaberg Blood Orange Soda

You know what’s great, when someone says “I have leftover homemade orange marmalade! Do you want any?” At least, that’s the sort of thing we think is great. So when a friend of ours offered us some of their homemade orange marmalade on the proviso that we make a cocktail with it, we snapped it up without second guessing. So in recognition to the provider of some delicious marmalade, we present to you … Roger That!

In a cocktail shaker add Ouzo, Campari, and one teaspoon of Marmalade with a lot of ice and shake. Melt your honey a little so it’s easier to work with and it to the cocktail shaker.

*N.B. We have found that if you just add honey at room temperature into a cocktail shaker with ice, it often slightly solidifies, so putting it in the microwave to heat a little makes it a lot more workable for cocktails.

Shake again. Using a coupe glass, create a sugar rim with the other teaspoon of marmalade and sugar. We suggest holding the spoon of marmalade in one hand and your cocktail glass in the other hand. Dip the rim of the glass into the spoon of marmalade and twist around the whole circumference of the glass so that you get an even coating. You won’t use the whole teaspoon, but it is good to have a little extra so you have an even spread across the whole glass. Once you have your marmalade coating on the rim of the glass, place the sugar into a small pile on a plate. Again, roll the edge of your glass through the sugar, turning as you go so that you have an even coating. This is a lot easier that it sounds, but it does add a little extra preparation time. This step isn’t necessary, but we think it adds a nice sweetness to any drink, plus it looks pretty!

Pour in your booze then top with the soda. You won’t need to use much of the soda, but this depends on the size of your cocktail glass. Garnish with a dehydrated orange slice.

Making this drink we learned a few things. Mostly we learned that we can use Ouzo in a cocktail and get good results! It’s not something either of us have really had much of before, outside of a few ill advised party shots, so it was a bit risky. We ended up with another pretty drink (we’ve been on a roll lately) that had a really interesting and different bitter orange licorice flavour. If you like licorice then you’re going to love this. We can safely say we have never had anything quite like it. The other flavours tone down the dominance of Ouzo and give the drink a bit more depth and subtlety. The marmalade sugar rim gives it an extra sweetness and Campari and marmalade go together like peas in a pod. The other thing we learned is never let The Gentleman be in charge of decorations. It was bad. Sugar and marmalade everywhere. The Lady promptly took charge of cocktail decorating duties!

Homemade marmalade is great on toast, but when you want to step things up a little the Roger That! is a perfect choice. We tip our hat to our friend for providing us with such a great ingredient and for making us come up with something so delicious.